##VIDEO ID:CY168ol7SmI## [Music] all right so um why don't we go ahead and get started it is 6:04 p.m. on the 15th of July uh this a weekly the finance committee meeting of the town of Halifax uh on the call from the Halifax committee is Cheryl Burke uh Frank Johnson Ed Brian and myself Jim Walters uh just a couple of housekeeping items this meeting is being recorded by me Cheryl I thought I said Cheryl Burke I didn't hear you okay all right um so Cheryl Burke is on so uh this meeting is being recorded by area 58 uh do this is a video meeting all votes will be done by roll call vote uh and um we are not not in attendance hang on that's Bill Bill will not be able to make it this evening 606 all right um okay so we will move into the agenda uh we have meeting minutes uh to be approved both from July 8th and June 11th the June 11th ones were sent out last night so starting with July 8th has everybody had an opportunity to read through those and are there any ads changes or deletions no so that's fine okay so uh all right can I have a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the finance committee from July 8th so moved thank you Cheryl second second thank you Frank roll call vote EJ yes Frank yes manage from July the 8 2024 thank you Cheryl yes thank you Cheryl and I am also a yes so that will pass 40 all in favor uh I has every has have we had a chance to look at June 11th I mean they did just come out last night if we haven't had an opportunity we can push that to the next meeting um if you haven't had a chance to read them uh let me know I read them okay same Cheryl yes okay all right I had a look at him too this morning so um can I get a motion to is there any ads changes or deletions to those minutes no no look good to me very good thank you can I get a motion to approve the meeting minutes for June 11th so moved thank you Cheryl is there a second second thank you Ed sorry Frank yes on a meeting minutes from June the 14 2024 thank you sir EJ yes thank you Cheryl yes thank you and I'm a yes also so those will be approved for zero all right so that includes item one on the agenda next item we have is are the line item transfers so we'll start with the itd data processing where the request is moving $88,000 from legal to itd data processing Cody any information on that or is Caesar going to speak to this uh this one is primarily being so this is our main it expense account so all of our licenses our renewal so on and so forth uh this one's being driven uh primarily by our fin fincial system so we started migrating mid mid year that was about a $10,000 increase um that we hadn't NE necessarily anticipated we initially had thought we would be able to absorb it because we did add a little bit of a buffer when we did the fiscal year 24 budget but as Caesar got in the renewals for a lot of our other things which are midye uh those were all around you know 5% um and caused the the uh the price you know caused the budget to go over here so Caesar can give more specifics I think he's on here I asked him to attend um but that's kind of the the main reason for that one very good thank you sir Caesar do you have any color to add to that um no Cody just hit it on the nail um you know aside from that you know we budget you know a certain amount for Hardware replacement as things break or break down um as we all know things have gotten little far more expensive than anticipated um that also includes my supplies that are in there and just to replace my toner which I did once this year was like more than double what it normally is so like I said aside from the the overage because of certain renewals coming in higher because we can only plan so much and build in so much those M year renewals on top of the increased Supply you know costs um you know that added to to the mhm to the headit but other than that that's basically all all the uh that I have to say on that one so are these subscription services or subscription licenses like Microsoft and are we buying them in bulk as a government agency for like a lower cost or we buying them individually what do you mean so this this doesn't include the Microsoft the well do you mind clarifying any like what are you asking what so what what what's costing us an $8,000 more well aside from the aside from the increased cost what we normally spend on our regular Hardware if someone's printer breaks we have to replace it if someone needs it repaired we have to fix it so the the timing materials for that the timing materials to either potentially replace it but also my office supplies like toner stuff like that all that's in the loop as far as the the licensing like we have our pretty much any software in the town comes out of my budget with the exception of just a few sure a lot of those renewals that we have mid year came because we we I try to get the proposal for our budget season which we start in October some of them might not happen until a year after that okay basically mid year for us this the current fiscal year so by the time it hits them there might be an additional two or $3,000 on the license cost that obviously we couldn't budget in right so I think Jim it's to I think answer your question most of our procurement through for software and things like that we do through the state contract so the state goes out and bids uh solicit proposals for basically lower prices on behalf of cities and towns so that's where we work with vendors um to procure that that are on the state contract and get the lower prices there through like yeah through governmental prices so it's like on the state backdrop contract for the network pieces right correct all the software all those licensing are purchased under the I think it's ITC 73 or something like that ITT itss 73 there you go too many there's too many there's always a third letter that they have it something right well I guess so just to be clear about my question I just wanted to make sure we weren't buying standard like commercial grade licenses we were getting the the dog or edu costs that are out there correct yes who do who do we use for a um um for a reseller of that do you know uh so for most of our regular like licensing uh we use Shi um we've been using them you I have amazing relationship with them we've been using them since I pretty much started um the town was already using them when I got here um and that's who we use for most like then you have a couple of other ones like um that are more that are direct um they don't I've tried getting them on to you know with Shi but they're through they're through State contract they're just they don't do reselling they do direct only yeah we just did our um online permitting through zones EJ so one of the things we're trying to do for some of our items is you may have multiple resellers on the state contract so so getting quotes from those multiple resellers so for the online permitting for instance we got three proposals from different resellers we actually saved like $4,000 from what we initially thought it was going to be just by going through different resell so we try to do that when it's feasible too yeah all right anyone have any other questions on the first uh line item transfer so I guess we can anticipate um FY 25 to uh have an increase again in this this particular line item is that correct uh I'm a lot more confident now that we're in the new fiscal year and I've already gotten you know about to process some renewals our Shi team has been able to actually go less than what we paid for last year and less than what they what they proposed so I'm not expecting that the licensing will actually have any effect on us this year so so Frank the the one thing just to just to add to that and Caesar I'm sure you're aware of this um this is I'm familiar with this from the at the state level it's it's kind of the space that I'm in the the one thing to caution ourselves on is even though we're we're resold and and bound through Shi um some of the some of the contracts that we have for some of the um providers Microsoft as the example here they they can pretty much increase their cost whenever they deem necessary not necessarily so it's not tied into the Shi contract that we have um or it or the state contract you mean correct yeah yeah yeah um so it's it's just something to be aware of that I think I think actually within the last six months or so uh Microsoft just in increased their um license rates and and whatnot so it's just be mindful of that I guess going into fy2 that it's it's not a guarantee that this isn't going to happen again in terms of the increases that's a good point I mean I can tell you that shi does a very very good job at Trying to minimize the effect I mean they you know like I said we have a good relationship with them um I I can tell you more times than not they've hit they've they've pretty much bit the bullet um bit in the bullet when it comes to trying to get us to a price Mark where we're at for the simple fact that it's not in our budget um right you know so you know e makes a good point they're a reseller they're not they get the quote from the company that we're getting it from and they have to work with that they're not determining the the base Pace uh the base cost essentially yeah it's a tough one to track certainly is all right all right any other questions Cheryl no anything okay all right uh then can I get a motion to um approve the line out of transfer for $88,000 from legal to itd processing second thank you Frank thank you Cheryl EJ yes Frank yes on the it data proc processing for 8,000 Cheryl yes and I am a yes also so that will that that is approved for nothing Jim were you g to send that out electronically again or do you want me to I got it now I got I got them all lined up so it just goes out as one whole document the four that you sent earlier okay perfect is there any way you guys can sign those tonight technically the state deadline is today that those have to be signed yeah well I mean yeah as soon as soon as we're done voting I'll send it out it should take about maybe 10 or 15 minutes toit everybody's um inbox uh and we should be able to sign it and get it back to you because as soon as it's done we all get a copy of the finished uh yeah document however with Michael and Bill not being in should I drop their names off um you can as long as the majority of the committee signs it you know and they technically could still sign it as long as the committee approves it right so um you could send it out to them and as long as everyone here tonight signs it that's sufficient for us to to pass on to do the actual transfer okay yeah and I've got yours and my Cod you sent out in my queue I was going to do it after we discussed it right yeah no that's fine I appreciate it I just that it technically if something is dated the next day it's invalid for the state if you approved it today's on today's date okay interesting yeah so one of the things with uh electronic signatures obviously it's all recorded so it's not like coming to the office where you approved it today and then you sign it tomorrow now there's kind of proof that you signed at a different date so right date and time right all right okay so uh that one is done on to the next line item transfer for telephone SLC Communications we are moving 9500 from the building inspector wages to the communication telephone line item so I will let Caesar take this one because he can explain it a lot better than I can thank you Cody so the um this account which is the band of my existence um the primary reason for the overage on this account and I and I take responsibility for this um is merely because we have so before we moved over to our new current new phone system which is our current one that we're using across the town we were on Verizon Centric that Verizon Centrix also had on top of the everyone's desk phones and and the whole nine yards it also included uh a lot of our Public Safety lines not 911 specifically but all of our um Public Safety lines at police or fire that we need to maintain at Copper level um or at the time we did two years ago and then it also includes our fax lines our alarm lines pretty much a lot of things that I haven't cut over to 8 by8 yet in some degree which is our existing phone provider um and that is the biggest chunk that's about I would say about 3 to 4,000 000 um right there uh of that overage the other the the other portion of that overage is specifically due to just adding lines throughout the year that you know whether it be for uh new positions that were either I wasn't aware of or wasn't initially anticipated um some of the lines we uh if there's a vacant position for exent amount of time I'll use Animal control officer and building inspector for instance I pretty much I deactivate them but they're still on the account so we reserve the number so that you know decreases the amount of money that it's like $10 a month compared to the 50 that we would normally spend so it's not literally 50 it's less than that just using it as a figure um so as positions come on you know it's those smaller ones that those new lines and as well as the the ones that we deactivate and reactivate in the middle of the year that I unfortunately did not account for and then on top of that which is the other portion of the other half is we have uh an increase obviously in Services you know just for the for the Verizon sl8 by8 our cell carrier which is AT&T uh regular service increases that are small when you're looking at it individually but are a little bit larger when you're looking at as a whole and then the stuff that we can't control and and those mounts I try to work with our providers regularly to try to keep them down at a fair rate so it's not much as a hit to the budget the other portion of that is a regulatory fees with our newer phone system it's all cloud-based it's all VoIP and those you know the uh FCC regulates regulates that a lot harder than a regular copper line so our our regular copper line services and Sir charges and Regulatory fees they're not as much and there's not as much of an increase on those than there are on our regular uh VI ones I was just looking at our previous bills and we've over the course of about a year year and a half we've gone up almost hundred so dollars a month just on our just on our uh 8 by8 um and all those are regulatory fees that I I have no control over and not exempt from them um and when I added it up we're looking at about a $9,800 uh increase I just I did the math uh right before the call looking at our previous years one one of the things too that Caesar didn't touch on is that we I've tasked him with over the next month or so is going through an an inventory of really our lines we have you know when I look at the bills we have an awful lot of phone lines and cell phones and so on and so forth and so and it might be warranted you know a lot of those might be the positions and and that need them um but we're going to really go through identify you know which phones or for which person and make sure that everyone who has one really needs one um for instance you know we don't need administrative assistants don't need a cell phone from the town um so going through and making sure that those things are being reviewed um which they haven't been done in a few years um I think will help as well I also want to add thank you Cody um yes that is that is happening I also want to add that as far as the Verizon portion I I was telling Cody uh you know a couple times and I confirmed it today that I am in the process of kind of just going in and starting to do all the number transfers so they're all in one systems we kind of pretty much lean Verizon as as much as we can um it means our alarm lines I'm working on uh working with um the alarm company to and and appropriate department heads make sure those lines get carried over without issue so that way not on uh you know we're not getting them on that bill but um and I expect for that to to initiate as in carry everything over by the end of this month um and then the effects for that to start happening in August um billing wise um and then there was one other point I wanted to bring up um oh there are some lines that we're paying for out of you know our regular Communications account but we're not but I'm expecting to offset those to the other departments so an example is our uh COA we obviously we never had GATRA now that we have GATRA we're able to offset that cost um so any of the lines we pay for there for the the Vans to SL the van drivers to have while they're on uh you know working out in the field um those costs will then be turned over to uh get supplemented by GATRA so that's going to be another decrease onto our regular Communications line that we would normally be paying for out of the budget Caesar is that is it is that a swap that can happen at any point in time during the course of the year are they Bound by contract in any way that we have to wait to a certain point no uh we can do I can do it at any time like take them off like they would stay on the account they would just be builded they so basically the COA would get a copy of the bill or internally I don't know how that would work Cody could probably elaborate on how something that worked because we're still going to keep it under our account it's not like going to go anywhere else uh in theory if we kept it on there it's more or less of internal accounting hey we're gonna tell gat you need to reimburse us for these lines basically so the so the reimbursement will yeah but we can take them but we won't be taking them out of out of our budget assuming that there's money already in our account for GATRA stuff but Cody can probably elaborate on that one way or another we're either going get reimbursed for it or going to pay for it out of money they send us yeah going to say contractually Cody um how's that written into the agreement that was signed a while back so they will reimburse us but it's not um we can't use it to pay for so the state law requires that you the the money that we get goes back into the general fund so it'll just serve as revenue for the town right so we we certainly will get reimbursed but you won't we'll still need to budget for it it's still expense that the town will see and then you know we'll Bild them you know if they if it's $200 a month that'll just be part of the assessment ultimately that they pay to us and then at the end of the year that you know that'll contribute in our revenues um so you won't see an offset in the account per se but we will get revenue for it yeah and I had one other question how many fax line do we have in town hall and other departments and how many times do we actually use fax lines anymore do you really do you really want to know the answer that question absolutely I want to know the answer question so for yep for fax line so we did move a a portion of our fax lines um over to the to our so we have a separate EA System um that we started moving our fax lines over I would say including the ones we moved over and the ones that we haven't we're looking at a about a total of 12 to 15 fax lines we probably moved over five at this point and what's the traffic on those fax lines in and out so you know when you talk about the town hall that can vary depending on what accidentally gets sent to us people look us up for kushman insurance and we end up getting registration and titles even though they're not just they're not looking at the right result um I know our our for like a health insurance stuff and our um or anything benefits related uh the treasures treasure collector's office uses the fax line uh a lot um the town clerk's office may use it often for certain uh birth like you know her vital records and elections stuff but aside from Poli like regular use like KNE to daytoday would be our police and fire and uh our library oh and our uh police fire COA and Library the the the usage on those is far more significant than the other departments because I see way handles a lot of the um State Insurance stuff that they do for residents um our police and fire use it to communicate with the court systems DA's office the dispatch same thing with fire um and then um our library uses obviously for public use I would think that town hall should maybe have one central line that's that's what it is now so in Town Hall uh the so I found this out a couple years ago that there were certain departments that actually had fax lines like hooked up installed ready to go I've just never hooked them up because when we replace their device it was never asked they just use a downstairs one but they actually had fax lines fax numbers um and they didn't even know so like I said a lot of those you know I'm going through and finding out which ones are act AC being used but the town hall one which is a seven Endz in 7684 that is the quote unquote Central one it's what most departments use that one is going to remain Central and um the individual like our our treasure collector's office does have their own fax line that's been cut over we're just in the process of you know going through and sitting down this is how you have to do it uh they just need a refresher on it right now they just use the uh physical fact machine because that's easiest for them and and one one more question and maybe Chief can answer this one um with the new Communication Center we're utilizing for our emergencies why would we not be electronically tied to that versus using the old school fax lines for communication with the central Communication so and like said the chief might be able to be more specific as it relates to his department but a lot of of the the the stuff that we get sent from The Rock to us via fact is a most of the time Court related um and as far as sending them electronically that might be something that may happen with the new CAD system that we're working on but you know the only answer I can give to that off the top of my head would be it's just how it is it could be regulatory you know it could be for regulatory reasons it could be that's what the state requires them to do I'm not entirely sure so the state has guidelines on um any information that's being sent electronically just kind of sees it up to brush on what you're talking about here that it's got to meet um certain encryption standards as it relates to pii so if there's personel information as far as names addresses um Social Security numbers things like that um as long as within the Microsoft Suite that we that we operate we have encryption um rules set up um you can you can move to scan and send essentially and eliminate the fat the fax machines um but there are and they're not mandated they're not mandated by the state but they're but they're pretty firm guidelines that they highly recommend that folks follow when they're trying to go down that path yeah and and a lot of it could be that you know because the rock is is an entirely separate entity they have their own systems it could be that because they have seven other the communities that's the only in the state's eyes well I disagree with it is the safest and most secure method of transportation of that information that it was easier to standardize on that one that every Community had versus trying to delve into which Community had which certain product and vice versa um that like that's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head but I don't disagree that we should look at electronic methods um well the preferred what I can what I can tell you is the number one no no is no printed copies of pii anywhere and that's what you're getting through a fax machine is a is a printed copy of the information the the the hardest standard that they have is that there's no printed information that has anyone's personal information obtained in it hard copy file yeah I I imagine anything like that would be get sent through their CAD system I'm more I think what they're I think what usually gets sent from The Rock to the to the police you know Department specifically are like I said court orders that they obviously need the physical paper for it in order to serve warrants or um or anything like that where it it funnels through the Rock and then goes to the station um like I said right now our cat system is nowhere near modern uh it's probably just as uh ineffective or inefficient as our current financial management system where there's not much you can do quote unquote electronically so I think they resort to that for a lot of the stuff that they can't utilize in um you know they can't utilize in what we have IMC but again when we have a new cat system a lot of that's probably going to be electronic so I I've got just a couple of questions if no one else has anything sure um so I'm curious we're looking at a budget of $40,000 of which we have a shortfall based on this request of $837 You' asked for and got approved 42,000 for next fiscal year which if this is going to be the Run rate you're already going to be short and asking for a line item transfer in about 300 days so how are we going to a avoid that uh is there just certain things we're going to not be doing in order to not go over the 42,000 next year or is that just we're just going to ask for more money at the end of the year it's a fair question um like Cody had mentioned we're going to be going through and auditing which lines we have whe and that might be we're moving it to decrease the you know the overall bill that affects it um the other options yeah we might have to cut certain things um out of the budget for the time being um but I can tell you that it is not our anticipation to come back and ask for more I think we are um I think 42,000 uh appropriation is sufficient for what we need to do and we're going to fit within that limit one way or another looking at it as sitting today you you're going to need to find $372 60 in savings over the next 12 months well what keep in mind that we're also going through our Verizon so our Verizon bill is basically going to be zero and that's a that's a large chunk of what that 8,000 is that's about $450 a month plus okay what's your average what's your average Communications bill a month uh between the various vendors we are looking at about 2100 for our primary phone system through 8 by8 for uh our 18t Wireless we're looking about a 900 for our Verizon it's about 450 but again that's that's going to be zeroed to whatever extent that is once we finish the transfer but to Cody's point it's not going to be zeroed because that money is going back to to general fund correct I'm saying the I'm saying the monthly the monthly cost so right now it's 450 once I complete the transfer yeah so the Verizon will be zero so basically Caesar has been transitioning us out of Verizon it's taken a little bit longer than we anticipated but once the the idea is over the next month we will be able to pretty much close down that Verizon account completely and that bill will be gone um and so that's about $5,000 a year right there that you know will not be there for this coming fiscal year and then I think through um reviewing our current phone lines we could probably save another couple thousand okay good question Jim though and like I said it's it's not something that obviously neither myself or Cody want to be coming back obviously we want to keep it in the budget and we're going to do what we have to to get it there whether it be cutting certain lines and finding alternative or like I said um trying to find other funding sources or putting or putting certain uh purchases through the appropriate funding sources once we analyze all that [Music] information all right anybody have any other questions and I get a motion to approve the line item transfer of 9500 from building inspector wages to the Communications telephone line they moved thank you Cheryl roll call vote EJ yes rank yes on 9500 for phones and Communications Cheryl yes thank you Cheryl and I a yes also so it passes uh all in favor thank you guys I appreciate it thank for explaining all that Caesar thank you guys for listening all right so that has been approved so the next line item transfer is electricity for the police department uh yes it is so you had previously uh done a transfer we felt very confident that that was going to cover it the um you you may recall I had mentioned that we um procured a new energy rate that rate went into effect a month later than I anticipated it so I thought it was going to take effect that first month so I think it was May um and it didn't take effect until June so uh and then just electricity usage was a lot higher than the average bill so we looked at the average bill and then added 10% when we did the uh transfer previous and it was a lot higher than that so hence the need for um the additional $200 okay um I it seems fairly self-explanatory to me does anybody else have any questions and we're getting cheaper electric bills right Dale yes uh our rate is cheaper our bills are higher because usage is up right now but uh because of air conditioning but um compar year do we have a year-over-year compar compon like this July last July yeah um I don't have it with me right now but we do have it and our our what we're seeing is a higher higher usage um and higher cost because last year at this time we were still under our old contract which we were paying at 10.4 cents per kilowatt hour um that went up to 15.6 for a few months and then we got it back down to we have two rates um one of them is uh 10 point or 11.2 and then I think the other one is 12 12.5 around there so either way we're saving now um with cheaper rates for the next 26 months but but demand's up with the early Heat Wave yeah yeah don't don't air condition the prison blocks they're in the basement aren't they should be noidea okay um anybody have any other questions G I get a motion to approve the line item transfer of $200 uh from police wages to uh maintenance and electricity in the police station thank you Cheryl second second thank you Frank roll call EJ yes Frank yes on $400 for the electricity at the police department well I'm sure they want it doubled but I think it's $200 oh 200 my my bad I'm sorry Cheryl yes thank you Cheryl I'm a yes also to move $200 from police wages to the maintenance and electricity that is approved I think the last one that we had that was on the agenda was moving $100 from the police wages to police expense over to Cody yep so the they desperately try to stay within this you know I think you've heard the chief mention this is a very tight budget for them um with all the expenses that they have they tried to stay within this but they did go over uh they transferring the $100 to play it safe but you can see they're they're really negative by like $737 and this is just general expenses for the Department uh things that they need it could range from office supplies to you know outfitting officers for you know things that they need within the department Department um and so yeah just they went over a little bit very good anybody have any questions for Cody or the chief just just real quick Jim um just to clarify I'm assuming this is to this is to cover the remainder of fy2 24 right yes yeah and there's do we know for certain that you know they're in negative you know $7 now do we know for certain that there's nothing pay pending in the queue that would hit once we reconcile um June uh well all invoices were due on Thursday to our accounting office and I had a meeting with our or not a meeting but I spoke with our interim accountant um today and Beyond what has been submitted there is nothing else um the all the transfers should cover any deficiencies so there's no other accounts that we anticipate like unless something comes through from you know it's we we make it known it's on our departments they know what they're ordering they know what their subscriptions are you know they need to anticipate the invoices um everyone knew the invoices were due Thursday we like I said got that one this morning but as far as they know and they've explained to us that this is it anything beyond this anyways so we have until the 15th toine item transfers if an invoice were to come in um tomorrow at this point the department would have to request to have it on town meeting we would actually have to go to town meeting to pay a prior year um invoice ultimately yeah I was I was more concerned with with this line item specifically like I I would hate for us to approve $100 at that amount and then find out there's $125 out there still no this was just for the reason for this request was a specific invoice I don't have the invoice in front of me but the $100 will cover the invoice I the the invoice made it negative by the 737 it wasn't anything beyond that they had the invoice in mind good question EJ thank you sounds good any other questions all right uh can I get a motion to approve the line item transfer of $100 uh from the uh from uh for from wages to uh the police expense so moved thank you Cheryl second thank you Frank roll call vote EJ yes thank you sir Frank yes on a $100 regarding the office supplies thank you Frank Cheryl yes thank you Cheryl I'm a yes also so that motion carries um I am since we voted on the four that I have in my one block I'm going to send that out right now so everybody should have it as I said within the next probably 10 to 15 minutes all right so that takes care of those line items we had one other uh add to the agenda for line item transfers that were not um that are reasonably available to be done we had one come in today uh from Cody to move $22,000 from the town buildings the snow and ice line item to town building expense so this was um the uh we budget $22,000 annually for snow and ice related specifically the town buildings so you know saw um other supplies that are needed and obviously it was a very mild winter so the minimal um items that our facilities team had to utilized Scott just ended up using out of his General expense account um with that the I'm sure you all have heard about the issues over at the library with the bathroom facilities over there um during the course of fiscal 24 we had the plumber over there at least four or five times trying to deal with the bathrooms we had clogging issues um we had you know uh overflowing as a result of clogging onto the floors so as you know plumbers um you know those service calls aren't cheap some of them had to be emergency calls so that is what really drove this um account to be in the negative there was um I didn't we didn't know about it because a bill came in we thought we were going to be good and then there was a maintenance bill for the generators a few of the generators we have in town they have annual maintenance done and that bill came in and was going to put us over the uh over the budget so that's why the request just came in um the director was on vacation so I didn't know about it until today what are we doing about the uh um issues associated with the library we going to continue in the fashion that it's at or yeah it's a good question Frank you know one of so um we shut down the bathrooms to the public uh about four months ago and we placed a porta potty over there and the idea of that really was to figure out what do we have a plumbing issue or do we have a people issue is what we wanted to figure out um and and what we found is the bathrooms have been utilized by the staff for the past four months and we have not had a single issue that tells me we have a people issue uh we don't have a plumbing issue every time the plumber went out he found toys down the pipes he found diapers down the pipes so you know it's a hard we could certainly spend and invest on for instance lining the pipes right to make it so things go down a little bit easier but you still May have the issue if people are throwing dirty diapers down the down the toilets there's a very good chance that they're going to continue to clog um so we've had internal discussions with the library director Jean glant myself and Scott we're really we're we're trying to figure out what the best option to move forward is we we recognize we need to provide you know bathroom facilities to our library patrons hence why we got the porter poty out there you know right away um but also you know as a steward of of town finances it's very difficult for me to recommend to you or a capital planning committee or town meeting to go out and spend you know what could be hundred th hundreds or hundred of thousand hundred of thousands hundreds of thousands of dollars to redo piping when um the reality is is we're probably going to have the same issue if we open it up and people continue to throw things down there that shouldn't be uh so that's kind of the challenge that we're working through and figuring out a balance of providing facilities but also being conscious of the town's finances um you know you know we have a lot of requests and there's a need for several Capital items um so it's it's trying to balance that so I the long of it is we don't really have an answer right now no and I understand that I'm just looking along the lines of um maybe some educational information available inside the Library set up some containers for the diapers and those types of things you know we did we did do that we we bought Jean bought uh diaper Genies put them in the bathrooms uh put up signage Scott has put up signage you know um don't flush anything down the toilets it's we yeah they we've gone through all that as much as we can you know we've talked about doing uh you know a system where you have to maybe ask for the key to the bathroom but again it doesn't it's not going to mitigate people throwing things down there is what you know the unfortunate fact is right I understand that um and then there's the issue that you see out there of some of the elderly people having issues with the outside facilities you know um especially in the heat here and then Winter's going to be coming after that so I don't know it's um I guess a double-edged sword yeah yeah it would be easier I if we were able to say hey you know the there's this problem with the pipes you know plumbers come in identified it and it would be unfortunate if we had to spend the money to do it but at least we could say okay this is the problem we need to do this and we could you know request the money from town meeting and move forward with it but um like I said it's just there is a very good chance that even if we were to line the pipe for instance which we got a proposal of you know 20 to $30,000 it's going to continue to happen because just like you know all of your homes if you throw diapers down the toilet and toys and stuff it it's going to clog the pipes right no I I understand yeah because Town's on you know the library is on a septic system just like your residence is right exactly you can only accept certain items down the line and those those items you mentioned aren't acceptable down the line so you know you would think that people would uh kind of understand that I guess yeah all right any other questions okay so uh can we can I get a motion to approve the $2,000 line item transfer from the snow and ice account to the town building expense account or I think it's the same account it's just different lines yeah so they're all under um the Municipal School building committee and then yeah it's the snow and ice under that to the expense account General expense account so move Jim second DJ second by Cheryl thank you Cheryl roll call vote EJ yes Frank yes on the $2,000 for the msbc Cheryl yes and I am a yes also so that motion will carry is approved so I will sign the one that you sent out Cody perfect yes excellent thank you all right Jim are you are you sending that one around to all of us as well or is it just no no no that's one Cody sent that as a separate email so that's a single that Cody you should have an Adobe request from Cody approving the one Cody sent out right okay okay so um I added a item to the agenda to kind of chat about this and Cody you can kind of help me through this because this was new to me um when I stopped by the F finance committee mailbox at Town Hall there was a pile of papers and amongst those papers were signature authorization forms um for this fiscal year so I have to or I am there's one that I'm going to probably take back to town hall and Cody that's going to be the big one with name signature and title because I think you need Wet signatures for that it seems right yes um the second document is um and Cheryl if you're okay with this I was going to appoint you as being authorized to sign um the payroll in case I am uh I am unavailable to do that when I either disabled or in my absence that's fine Jim okay not a problem Cheryl that'll be there for you have to sign that one also so that'll be there for you uh and then this other one as I said it's a long one I'll leave it with the with the um Lindsay in the accounting office uh so that she can fill it out but it's uh I'll send I'll scan a copy and send it out to everybody so you have a copy of what it is that we're signing uh ahead of time but I will be dropping it off uh tomorrow probably tomorrow morning okay all right um so when you see it if you have any questions I'm sure Cody can answer them I'm just to me it just looks like we're just you know listing out who's on the committee for this year uh and then for Cheryl for you to be the alternate signer for for like for uh payroll and other things that need to be signed okay yeah that's pretty much yep you hit the nail on the head Jim um you guys really don't have any um bills you know vendor bills that come in so um the only thing you would have is payroll and you would just agree that you know Jim would be the primary signer and then charl will be the backup and that's it perfect well that makes sense so thank you for that help Cody and again if if you guys have questions sure Cody could probably answer him if he's available to chat about it all right so uh that closes out that specific uh agenda item and on to the budget report so I know Cody I don't know I know I sent you an email just about some of the just some of the questions that I had regarding some unexpended balances I know that I think Frank you sent one in uh with some some other line items that you had some questions over so um you know my question just for everybody's edification was there was a lot of there were a lot of lines that had unexpended funds associated with them you know and I'm sure you know I'm fairly sure that a lot of those will a lot of that will be depleted as invoices are reconciled at the end of the year um which is you know today um so but there's still you know that still kind of leaves a lot of money out there there's a lot of line items that have um all town meeting warrant numbers next to him the ATM number whatever uh you know I don't know if that's just going to permanantly be there because it was part of the warrant or does that roll into free cash because nobody's done anything with it you know just kind of what are the mechanics behind it just because I'm not familiar with it and I'm sure that you know the information would uh benefit probably everybody I would hope yeah so great question um what you see for the most part if it has um like the date next to it that means it was an article on town meeting on that date and those are primarily um articles so the town has done things a little bit uniquely um in the past you typically you have two uh sources of funds right you have your operating budget your town meeting approves it you know annually through article four and then you have your Capital plan which are those Capital items um and that that would be it what the town has done in the past is for things that probably should have been rolled into an operational budget um if they were looking for even a couple thousand dollars would would go for with an article and so you do see there are some in there you know for a few thousand dollars for what so um you have you know Frank sent one U Electric solar traffic signs uh Springtown meeting um $2,412 now was approved for a higher amount but there's a lot of those in there so there there articles with an article it doesn't you know close out automatically at the end of the year so like our operating budget um any excess funds would close out automatically um at the end of the fiscal year when we do our reporting to the Department of Revenue we take the excess funds uh along with our excess revenue and that ends up being our free cash that we would utilize towards capital for the next fiscal year with the Articles uh we would need to manually close those out so believe it or not there used to be a lot more of these with kind of some small balances but at the end of fiscal 23 and early fiscal 24 um Sandy did a nice job of going through following up with a lot of departments hey do you still need this what's the status of this and closed a lot of those out um I anticipate we'll do the same with Eric our interm accountant um over the next month or so and just make sure you know what's the status of these and close those out when they're not needed um and then the other thing is is making sure we're staying on our department heads that when we approve um a capital item that they follow through and and order it we don't want to wait three or four years and then what ends up happening is we usually get priced out of it and we need additional money um so we want to make sure they they follow through with those um so that's why you see a lot of those in there and that that stays reserved until we close it out so like you that won't show um that won't be available as free cash because that's a it's a reserved re um it's reserved money already for that specific purpose so most of it already was free cash at one point and then it was appropriated for whatever the purpose and then it stays that way until we close it out and when we close it it goes General uh yeah it just reverts back to J General Revenue and then would would end up closing out to free cash when we certify cash right right uh Jimmy you done or you got any well I so I guess I probably just have two just quick follow-up questions um you know as I read through it you know something like like the highway has something from 2019 right for a fence exactly what and it it's it's still there the the monies are are it's a carry forward line line so there's no real appropriation it's like money that's just already there why why is why hasn't that project been done so and and my second followup question is my favorite project which is the American with Disabilities Act and the half a million dollars that has been reserved for that you know can we can the town get a plan from whoever's you know hanging on to half a million bucks to say here's what I'm going to do this year and here's how we're going to spend it because it just seems to me just bad financial management on the part of the department heads for not you know taking the money getting the stuff done because you know it's I I understand it's it's it's the town's money and you know it's just been allocated that way but still from a fiduciary aspect it just seems kind of kind of foolish that we are this far behind on stuff uh yeah so let me start with the uh Highway one so I did Frank brought up a good point a lot of those accounts um and um I I met with Steve about these and I also sent him an email asking for him to provide some written documentation as to you know what has happened here this the fence in particular um I agree was a concern and I brought it up to him the reason for that he so the the town had planned to fence in that area over where the landfill is so the town's landfill over henlock plane where the highway Barn is um and then the there was a solar committee I think is is what it was they started bringing up the idea of um leasing the land for solar and so when Steve heard that he put a pause in this project because most likely the whoever put the solar on the project on the on the landfill would be responsible for fencing it so he didn't want to use the town funds if it were going to be completed through a a private vendor so the status of that is we did go out to bid um maybe six or nine months ago U for that we did have a vendor respond and we're working we're negotiating with the vendor right now to lease that land out so um and and part of that is is they would be required to put up a fence once that happens if that does happen and we have a contract with them we can close out this article and and return that money to the town um we just have not done it yet because we don't have anything executed we don't want to you know close out the funds if it doesn't if for some reason it falls through and we need to end up putting the um fence ourselves you know the town pay for it ourselves so that's that's the reason for that but I have asked Steve to provide um documentation on the other items as well the truck um the dump truck I he I've talked to him several times about this he has um ordered that now that is expected to come sometime this fall or early witer um so that that item should be utilized too but as soon as I get the rest of the information I will share with the finance committee yeah Cody and I wanted to touch base on that I see that it it did have a expenditure to date of 25,8 67 from the truck at uh town meeting in uh uh 2022 but right above that there's another Highway dump truck from 51021 town meeting article 34 for 71,000 that was never dealt with as well uh yeah that's the one that he ordered Frank so that's the one that is is now ordered um it will be coming sometime this fall early winter um we can certainly have Steve in to kind of explain the logic I basically he when I asked him about this and why it hadn't been done um he said it a lot with when there were a lot of shipping delays and and vehicles were delayed uh and he anticipated that those delays would um come down as we all know they really didn't so um he didn't order and thought it would be best to wait and then um you know unfortunately he he now has ordered it um it is it's actually going to cost us like $2,000 more so that's right yeah so you know I this um yeah we we Tred where we G get so so where's 20,000 coming from uh we're going to use our chapter 9d funding so we're getting some additional chapter 90 funding this year as part of that um fair share Amendment so the the millionaires tax that that the state put into account a lot of that so we're getting an additional I think 150 or $160,000 in chapter 90 money so um that can be utilized for that portion um Ty for the roads what's that Frank typically don't we use chapter 90 money for the roads um it can be we've used it for several different things um we're using a small portion of it for the uh Highway barn roof replacement um Steve was looking to do a new salt shed that something I may be used for we've used it for um the Pine Street bridge to supplement the small the grant that we got for that um as long as it goes toward the operation which is truck you know directly would it's a it's um a valid expense that we can utilize that funding for yeah okay and then of course another item I had there as you saw was an additional backo from 2021 as well a highway backo article 33 for 21,800 we just got rid of a backo that we gave to um or transferred over to the water department we bought a new excavator in fy4 for 150,000 so we anticipate buying this backo that we had requested money for in 2021 uh again that's one of those items I'm still waiting clarification on from our Highway surveyor um as soon as I have that I will I'll share that with you yeah and my concern is that these are articles that are several years old most of these and nothing had been done with them and you know that's a lot of money setting that in tight times that if we haven't done something with it by now did we really need it to begin with right that's fair yeah so and we're asking the schools to cut dollars right yeah so I I agree um you know and it's it is um an operational thing right we need to make sure that we're requesting or our departments are are in a situation where they are requesting only what is needed um and they're able to identify those needs but then it's a follow through where we need to make sure our departments are following through um the expectation is if if they put in a request we would expect them to spend it I mean you see most departments if they have a capital request come July first they can't get that money quick enough um but it it for some departments that hasn't been the case and that's that's an operational thing we need to work on okay so why is it why is it even allowed that if something's approved in FY for fy21 that it's not FY 23 or 24 or 25 yeah well once um once it's appropriated it's there for use for whatever the the use is it doesn't we don't we don't give a time limit and the reason for that is so for vehicles for instance you probably could you know make it so it needed to be spent that fiscal year Co was a little different because there were certain Vehicles where you you know you were you were waiting over a year but generally speaking nowadays you can get it within a year uh but there could be other projects that are multi-year so we're looking at you know the Council on Aging project where the 1.7 million approximately was appropriated that's going to be a multi-year and you may even have several years after the fact right that you're using that to kind of tighten things up at the end um so projects most of the time capital projects span multiple years yeah so so from a project standpoint I get it from a project standpoint but if you're talking about an actual good or an item that's being purchased if you're not buying it within that fiscal year inflation right out of the gate is going to throw it out of the budget that we've been app that they've been approved for yeah so there's no there's no standard in place that tells them if we approve it for fy21 you have to purchase an fy21 so you know um I I completely agree with everything you're saying and for departments that are under um the board of selectman and you know there for under kind of my um jurisdiction that is something we can easily you know we we have more oversight I should say with um we have an elected uh Highway surveyor he um you know that position is kind of he just can work with impunity no no and he does a nice job of working you know collaboratively um but there isn't a direct kind of way of it's not as it's not like other departments right where it's a it's a direct report um where we can oversee that process so why not I mean the money it's I mean so if town meeting wanted to put a stipulation in or something where you know it had to be spent in a certain year but once so once we approve it and it gets the authorization to spend is under the highway surveyor that's an elected position that the only one that that's accountable to is the voters of Halifax and we don't think that the voters of Hell OFA care about that sitting there all that time and not they know they don't know that's the problem I think there I think that Cody or with all I understand what you're saying but I I I don't think the fact that that position is elected should have any bearing whatsoever on whether or not the person is held accountable to spend their money within a fiscal year that that it's allocated for EXA well I see I see what you're saying EJ but there's no there's no we that that position doesn't report to anyone that position reports to the the voters of fact so you know there stipulate that the funds when we award the funds why aren't we stipulating that the funds are are yours for fy21 if they're not spent in fy21 then the town takes them back because it's it's to be honest this isn't an issue across the board and this isn't an issue in in most communities you you give the you need to give the you know we we have um qualified staff and we trust them to carry these things out so so and there may be something where you know we just had um I don't know if it was a police vehicle or a fire vehicle I can't recall but we got the vehicle in one fiscal year but then it couldn't get outfitted for another month or so so it technically got outfitted in the next fiscal year and in that case now you're talking if we were to stipulate it how to be spent in a fiscal year now the vehicle wouldn't be able to be outfitted we'd have potentially go back to town meeting and delay it for a few more months so it's not a typical that and that's why I say it's more of an opper operational problem because this isn't this isn't a normal or or not a typical issue to have of spending the money like I said most you don't you're not seeing this across the board what you're seeing is a lot of these accounts where there's money left is just a clean up we haven't gone through and cleaned them up and closed them out most of them have been spent in the in the cases where they haven't touched them at all it's an operational point we need to revisit it and say yeah did you really need this because if it was approved four years ago that's a tough that's a tough sell to the town and the finance committee right you really needed this but it's been four or five years why hasn't it been spent I mean that's but there's no there's no the way a capital item or an article is approved is it's appropriated once and it's there for use until until either rescinded by town meeting or closed out you know by the through the town account and through the town yeah I I just I I stand by what I've said I think it's irresponsible to allow just an open-ended purchase on something that's been approved I I get it for projects but there's no way that you can that you can assume that something is even going to be remotely close to the monetary value that it has today to what it's going to be four years from now and and the citizens of the Town based on what they've been told when the article was approved is that this is what it's going to cost to to happen when four years later then the town is going to be told it's going to cost hey by the way it's going to cost another $30,000 because we didn't do it four years ago when you first approved it and I don't think fair to the to the taxpayers of the town I agree I'm completely on board with you here I I mean I if you have recommendations on how to handle it um I'm all I'm all ears it's you know it's not that I disagree with doesn't the board of Selectmen have the authority to create policy over Financial um pieces of the town's business uh they do but not for so the way that that this works is when a capital item is um approved there's spending authorization that is given so if you look at this art so take the article from 2021 I think it was for the dump truck if we pull up that article it says and I'm paraphrasing um something along line along the lines of x amount of dollars to be spent by the highway surveyor for the purpose of buying a dump truck the only person that has the authorization at that point to use that money or move forward with something is the highway surveyor that no no I understand that and I also I I understand we kind of are where we are and we can't turn the clock back I get that moving forward when Steve comes in somebody whoever comes in and they want to get another chipper right and they want $84,000 during that Capital planning session can it not be stipulated by the finance committee the board lean or whoever that if this article is approved by the town you have the fiscal year to buy it or 12 months to buy it or whatever and if it's not bought in that time that money falls back into the general fund I would have to check just to make sure that we have the if Town meet if town meeting were to vote it that way Jim absolutely no no doubt in my mind right as far as the authorization to resend kind of take that money back um I'd have to check and see what how we would let's let's ask the town attorney I don't see any harm in that you know because it's cap it's part of the capital planning process for that up fiscal year right yeah and so the way we do it now we would not have an issue with it right because we don't we we say um to be spent by the highway department and whatever it is so if it were an item that we did this year or last year no doubt we would have we would not have an issue if the board of Selectmen took a vote hey we're going to close this out I have no no question that we could do that it's these prior items that were done um prior to uh 23 so in 22 21 anything prior to that the the language in the Articles were very um specific as to who has the authority for each article and those are the ones where I'll check with Council and see what the process would be on that because the they're specifically to for instance the highway surveyor the way we do it now is all under one Capital plan so it's not a separate article and it's just general oversight by the board of selectman so that's something we could could resend any of those but we're all we're talking about ones that are all previous to that so what is their what is their what is our policy I guess relative to the the Capital planning process for a department head if they have an item that they know they're going to want to procure in an upcoming fiscal year so take a dump truck or a chipper for example if they know they're going to want to do that what do do they go out and get quotes but I guess where are they coming up with with the amount that they're requesting yep so we um the pro prior to this past fiscal year the process wasn't well defined they kind of just submitted what they submitted Capal plan committee may meet may not meet and then go from there what we've started is they have to we have a defined Capital form which you may have seen it's a project request form they have to fill out we have one for um equipment and then one for projects and then they have to attach um supporting documentation so um either they need to follow procurement law so they would either need to get a proposal that's from a state contract and attach it um they would need to if it's not State contract they would need to solicit most multiple um proposals so we have an idea of what we're looking at so they yeah they have to go through some sort of procurement process um and attach it with that project request form so we know that it's a valid request okay so they so in theory once the the budget is approved for the upcoming fiscal year they would have everything in hand that they need to go out and make that procurement right away as of fcal 24 yes that that is yes that has been the process so anything now that is you know since I've been here that has been the process that they are armed to make those purchases as of July 1 okay so this issue should essentially go away outside of potentially projects that you mentioned but for for goods and and items that we would actually receive physically this this issue should probably go away based on the new process that's in place that's the goal I mean yeah that that's the goal anything like this that we see you know even before it gets to like the finance committee so I'll be blunt with you I had a conversation with Steve probably going back six or eight months you know about this because it's something that um got brought up during our existing Capital planning process for the for fiscal 25 when I reviewed you know what what we had previously uh allocated it it it jumps right out at you right we previously approved a truck and we haven't bought it that that's you know that's a it's uh raise his eyebrows right why why haven't we done this so that he has ordered it now can't go back in time but he has ordered it yeah right and we're talking not including the $220,000 truck about $1,267 going back as far as 2019 that hadn't been expended you know um it kind of looks like well do we do we really need it anyhow you know um because we didn't do anything with it is how I look at it now the cost of all those items on there are going to cost us another 30 40 50% more than what's tagged there so at that point how do we deal with that um when somebody comes in and they've got an item for $120,000 and now they need another 40,000 to purchase it on an article who approves that $40,000 well it depends what the funding source is Frank um so you know if it's a funding source that needs appropriation it would have to go through the the process um of you know Capital planning and then it would come to you guys as finance committee and then it would have to go to a town meeting uh or something like chapter 90 um Steve has the ability to spend chapter 9 90 within you know within his Department as he uh sees fit um so it all defend depends on the funding source but yeah it's I'm in in complete uh agreement with you guys it's and it's I really view it as more of an operational management issue um than anything which I think you know we're we're tightening up and will continue to tighten up um and unfortunately we just can't change kind of how it was done previously but but we recognize that it's an issue and and we're trying to fix it yeah but a concern of mine is we're taking money from somewhere else to pay out more money for something that we should have already had when we could be using that money for something else as tight as things are getting and now we're taking chapter 90 money which historically has been used for our roads and there's plenty of roads in Halifax that need chapter 90 money so just a little concerned about using that money for other purchasing other items and then I guess we don't have a you know somebody within Town doesn't have a SA over there except for the manager of the division that it's being utilized in it's kind of strange so I think it's unusual that Steve can just it doesn't really report to anybody so I'm gonna I'd like to ask the town attorney about that too and I'll do my own digging there's got he just can't you know just be like well you know everybody's got to vote me out whether I'm doing a good job or a bad job that is that is is the case Jim and that's why um you're seeing towns move away and and I don't I don't mean this in any reflection of Steve or anyone position but that's that's why you're seeing towns move away from this model because um there's no there there's no oversight there there is no they report to the voters basically the only way that they are moved out of their position is if there were a recall and they voted them out or if um you know they go up for reelection and they don't want re-election hypothetically and it's happened in some towns they could not show up they don't get vacation or sick time what we pay them is just an annual salary ultimately but um you know they're not a b they're not a position where they get you know two weeks sick time or or three weeks vacation time they could take two months off of work um yeah they they report to the voters and that's that's why they were uh someone put a an article on town meeting a couple years ago for this kind of for that um or you may have you know a treasure collector which that is a huge professional role all all of these elected roles are but um you're responsible for the town's money if the job doesn't get done obviously as the Town Administrator you know I'll step in and help where I can but you could you could have a a treasure collector who could tell me to yeah pound pounder you know sorry nope you're not involved with this I'm elected this is my operation leave me alone luckily we don't we have a very all all three of our full-time elected um positions are very collaborative and it and it works but they could it's it's yeah tell me about it I you're a preaching in the choir I think it is um it's not a very good way to run because there's no accountability but the waytown meting kind of use it as it's it's the ultimate accountability that they're the ones that vote these people in but it's just changed so much over the years it's not you know the town clerk is a great example the town clerk you know 20 30 years ago did birth certificates marriages um and elections were a lot simpler the town clerk nowadays there's so many regulations and you know legal aspects of it I mean Frank works in the polls and I'm sure he sees you know just a small portion of what goes on um and you could have anyone anyone who who could win an election could serve in that role and and it's a mess so it could be a mess it's not a mess Halifax but it could be if you get the wrong person in there um it's one of the reasons the board of Selectmen are looking at doing a form of government study because they recognize that that kind of the way that we're going is not um a trajectory for for Success future it is yeah it's not so but yeah if you do a little you can do a little bit of research on it a lot of times they're changing but it is it's it they're they're responsible to the voters no oversight other than the voters that's just that's a shame I don't think I've ever lived anywhere when it was like that like anywhere well just as long as we can come to terms on all these article items that are not being utilized and either get it done for what they what they are for or let's get that money moved out of there and put back into the general and if we really need it let's bring it back to the town and vote for it on a new Cody why don't we invite Steve to the next meeting and he can certainly tell us in his own words AB why why this why these projects are dragging so definitely um and then the other one Jim was the Ada stuff yeah so it looks like Scott has spent about uh 77,000 he has another 40,000 encumbered uh meaning he has a contract in place just we just haven't paid it out and the reason the remainder is there because he's um we're actually bidding out right now A Paving project so for ramps um accessibility over let's see it's the library it's the Council on Aging and it's the elementary school and that is expected to take up almost the remainder of that probably around 300 to 350,000 wow that's a lot it is yeah it's a lot of lot going down yeah huh so if the if the paving absorbs the balance of what's left what how is he going to fulfill all the other items in that 192 page report I anticipate he will be coming back um to request additional funding I have um advised him that that is something that needs to be on his fiveyear Capital plan you know how he how he envisions that being spent so we can plan for it but would I would tend to believe that he'll be requesting additional funding um as early as next fiscal year and we ask him to submit like some kind of plan timeline yeah so he's he's he's working on I've asked him to prepare a report of U projects that have been completed um and then also how he anticipates you know just the next few years going and in just rough estimates it's challenging right you go out anything beyond the current year but provid some rough estimat of each project particularly the larger ones and how much it's going to cost so for R you know a rough order magnitude that's really what I'm looking for especially from cost and and time yep he's yeah he's working on that once he has it completed I'll share with the committee you know what kind of numbers he's looking for Cody I think he's going to be looking for as much as he can get um it's really all going to depend on you know how our free cash is um and our other expenses you know he he initially was only looking for two or 300,000 um you know last fiscal year but free cash was in a pretty good place and we knew that there was just going to be more so we had said let's bump it up to five so if you can get another five he'll probably ask for another five I I don't know if we'll be in a position to give him another five though okay any other questions on the budget for this uh thanks Cody for going through those numbers over the weekend and uh getting back and just kind of explaining all that tonight to everybody and um I have a better understanding and um to a degree I have a better understanding but just the concern is how old the article items are and um not being managed properly yep something I think we all need to keep a track of the because as as EJ said you know year over-year these costs are going to go up and so what they've they've been awarded at this point may not be enough right to complete the activity and then they're going to come back and say I need to do this you know I've got a fence I want to put up from 2019 and you know I thought it was going to be 40 but now it's 80 yeah no I agree the the goal when we do it um when we have a proposal submitted with a capital item I typically will add 10 or tell the department head to add 10% to that figure just because you're talking about they're getting a figure sometimes in J you know December January and the earliest they're going to be able to start to actually buy that or start the project is July so in that time you may see a five or 10% increase anyway so we always tell them to add 10% and then best case scenario the price remains consistent and we and we cut return that back to the town but we we don't build in enough to to cover multiple years of inflation that's just right exactly it wouldn't be financially smart or feasable and it makes sense to put a 10 or 15% contingency in there into your numbers anyhow a unforeseen circumstances within the project itself Andor like you say cost of materials and labor yep that's just smart business right one thing too I mentioned this to Jim in my email uh with our new Financial system I'm hopeful that we're able to separate these as capital projects or articles then operational uh budgets because it is rather confusing now when you look at it and it's all kind of one document it would be I think very helpful to to be able to sort those two hey here's your operating budget here's your Capital items so hopefully that'll um make things easier come December Cody do you have any information on the new financial management system that you could um potentially share with us like any any written material I'm just Cur I'm just curious as to what what the system is like that you're that you're installing just out of curiosity yeah I can see if I can find something most of the information we have uh we did like a series of demos several hours of demos that's kind of where we saw a lot of it but we certainly should have some information uh and if I I'll I'll look and see what I can find incendo it's called um Springbrook is the name of it um cus cus R R Us yeah cus through through Spring Brook but I yeah I'll find some documentation and share it with you guys is it cus with a c yes okay with a c yeah okay I just look it up spring sofware anything else for Cody more the budget on this round all right we'll close that agenda item M again just to Echo Frank thanks for all the information Cody certainly do appreciate it no problem yeah thank you very much like I say I sent it to you kind of late I apologize for that oh no worries um I didn't want to Blindside you Monday afternoon with it or Monday evening on the meeting no I appreciate it yeah Cody that was that was a helpful conversation for sure good yeah um I don't mean to jump the gun when is the next meeting so I can well that's we we we're gonna talk about that as our last item so I'm so I am out the next two Mondays so next Monday and the following Monday um so Ruth and I are away on vacation so I would say what's the first first weekend first Monday and would be the fth the fifth so I one um it I wanted to note was we had talked about a meeting with the school department I did get in touch with them and they um said that they could be available on the 12th August 12th yeah okay good that works yeah so do is uh are you are you saying we should hold the meeting on the 12th and not the 5th Cody is that the recommendation that I'm hearing um it it's totally up to you guys um we definitely will should hold one on the 12th if everyone's available because I think it's important to start that conversation with um with the schools um as far as the fifth I I mean I can't think of anything that would really come up that would be urgent this is kind of things slow down for about a month because you know all line transfers are in and then mid August we'll you know we'll really start talking budget again I'd like to um Todd had mentioned it but I'd like to start reviewing our financial policies um maybe sometime in August that'd be a good time to do it and um get those updated prior to the start of the fiscal 26 budget season um so if if everyone's comfortable waiting till the 12th I I don't think that's unreasonable at this time of year no no I'm good with that work for everybody EJ does it look good for you it does yeah I the only thing that I'm thinking uh Jim is where we're meeting with school on the TW on the 12th um us as a group not having time to kind of jump into at least some initial conversation before we meet with them as a group I don't know if that's beneficial or not but it's just a thought to maybe potentially wanting to meet on the 5th for that reason sure sure certainly or start our meeting early on the 12 maybe half an hour early so we can kind of regroup together and have them come in I don't I think that's probably it so we could start at 5:30 um on the 12 on the 12th and then the rest of the crew can jump in at six yeah yeah if they want but at least so we can dissect it a bit does that work for you Cody because obviously you're uh you know gerain to that conversation specifically uh yes absolutely that does work that um that works great so we planed for a 5:30 start and I'll ask the school to conv in around six yep yeah I did um on that same topic I did speak with I had a nice meeting with The Plimpton Town Administrator today for a couple hours um and a few things we're looking to do um you know Sandy I think had mentioned Tri town finance committee meetings yeah so it's something um that I'm in the works of trying to set up I have an email into the Kingston Town Administrator to see get his thoughts on it um but we're also we're going to try to set up um a meeting among myself the uh two Town administrators from Kingston and Plimpton School admin team is a little kickoff and then um something we want to try is during the budget season Jim you were there for some of the meetings we had you know you myself Sandy and um the school admin team maybe making that a um uh once we get into the budget a try Town thing so make it the Town Administrator chairman of the finance committee and even maybe you know a member of the select win or something but from each Community to meet with the schools to try to hash out some of uh some of these things because I you know I do think there's a value in these joint meetings but the joint meetings sometimes can be you know a lot there's a lot of people and the the actual work that gets done sometimes it can be minimal just because a lot of conversation so a smaller group um it's something the plon Town Administrator brought up that I thought might be a good idea um so we're going to look into that um so I just want to give you an update that we are working on those things yeah no I that's so I was I was actually that was that was something that I was thinking about is getting the towns to meet with the school as one body yeah you know and just from a and that way there's like just a un just a unification of messaging when we're talking to the talking to the school specifically because I'm sure um I'm sure and and I'm sure EJ probably thinks this too is that uh you know this coming year they're going to want they're gonna they're going to want an increase because their their set their their Union contract calls for an increase so they're just going to want one you know and it doesn't in my opinion you know they the the money's got to come from somewhere so you know how is that going to happen and I think if we start dealing with that early on it will make it less of a contentious issue uh as we get closer to town media in May yeah no and and um we are going to have a very challenging fiscal 26 budget um if anyone has any interest you know in August I'm more than happy to sit sit down and go over some Financial projections with you I don't I don't really want to do it in a public meeting at this point because they are just projections but you know more than happy to meet one-on-one with anyone but um you know our projections show um we we with our anticipated requests we will not be able to present a balanced budget you know unless we would to pursue an override I'd love to sit down and go over that with you Cody whenever you get a chance yeah when you get back from vacation shoot me an email and we can set something up Jim sounds good okay well we have inadvertently executed on the next meeting planning so that light item is done um so we'll close that one out move on to correspondence and as may arise I haven't gotten any correspondence from the finance committee uh and uh is there anything that is not on the agenda that any of the members here would like to discuss uh as part of this meeting Frank um Stop and Shop good we've kind of kicked can around for a few months kind of seen that coming thate of any Publications Cody I don't know if you can tell us this if you know this yourself is one there's property tax and uh on the structure and the um land and two what's the impact on the sales tax to our budget for FY 26 so so um I'm not going to comment on the uh value because I don't have enough factual information so I don't I don't want to I'm not sure so I don't want to give you any misinformation um I'm working I'll be working with our assessor to try to determine if any effect will occur and if there is you know we'll definitely keep you guys updated of that um you know it's one of the reasons we have the overlay in place right that money put aside for things like this um where we we don't you know it's unex Ed whether it's a bait an abatement or something like this occurs so um we'll be okay for fiscal 25 because we have you know we put money aside for that reason if there were to be a change not sure that there will be um as for sales tax I don't think we'll see much of um a decrease so the only thing we would directly benefit through a sales tax from that would be their prepared meals right we'd get a meals tax on those U but that's a small portion of of what they do because the you know sales tax is directly State uh Revenue um the only local Revenue we get like I said is that meals tax which would only beyond the prepared food that they have yeah they don't do any all right and then U my understanding and like the assessor would know this is who the true owner of the property is um what I've seen and researched it's a it's a property management company not actually sto and Sho it owns the structure in the land um so maybe be kind of nice to understand that as well yeah it's a good um those are all good questions I mean it's these things unfortunately happen sometimes um you know we'll work the zoning bylaw Review Committee actually is a great you know asset in this the timing um although we would you know never want to see a a business close down um the timing is um lines up well because you know it's an opportunity to look at the zoning and if we want to provide for future development there we have a good um a good we have ability right now to kind of put in place what the town would like to see or at least present some options so um but you know it's it's I've seen things of well you know we'd like a market baset to go in there or something you know I hate to be the bearer of bad news that we're not getting another grocery store in there um right you know it's yeah we're geographically in a a challenging location um you know so I it's I one one grocery store didn't do so well we're not going to get another grocery store in there but we um yeah we'll work and reach out to the owners and try to work with them and and you know um help them develop it we'll we'll get material from them once it's available and and share through our networks and share with the you know Chamber of Commerce so they can do some advertising for us and Old Colony planning Council um so yeah we'll do everything we can on our side to try to get that property um you know filled again right no understand indoor pickle ball courts it's a thing seriously drug store thing it's a thing there's the there's it is yeah okay yeah good something million dollars right now it's crazy yeah all right thank you Cody very good anyone else okay uh next we'll close that one out next agenda item public participation uh is there anyone on the line who would like to comment or have questions for the finance committee okay hearing none we'll close out there that specific line item so as we discuss next meeting planning will be 5:30 on the 12th of August where we will get together and talk about the school budget then talk to the schools uh during the meeting at six o'clock if anyone has um specific questions or items that you'd like to see prepared for that meeting let me know um you know as in in much Advance as possible and I will share that with the school team so we can um hopefully you know have a productive conversation and make sure that they're prepared for what the finance committee is looking for so I would ask that if they are if they are doing I guess the things they need to do correctly they by the end of July they should have at least one month of expenses into their budget and how does that look I'm not asking for an entire year to extrapolate what they're going to you know burn out through the entire year but what is the have what have they spent are they are do that does it look like something's off off balance or is it going to be okay now as we were discussing earlier um you know the $39 million contract or the the budget that they have not contract my apologies uh is about $220,000 a day during the school year for the 180 days of the school year so you know once we get into August or after Labor Day that's you know that's SP is going to go it's going to go up dramatically so you know how do we look for the summer months which it should be very low um and are they are they tracking that currently or are they just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop I don't know you know that's a question I'd like to ask and if they aren't that's fine but why aren't they due to the current budgets and uh costs of today yes and and I'd like to also understand the busing contract I believe in one of the previous meetings they had mentioned that when they were in the last year of the contract so FY 26 would I believe would have been a new busing contract going out and see where we stand with that and also the um what are they doing regarding special um transportation as well what's the goals and plans with that and how to how are they managing that I did get good news that um well it was back and forth on a Friday I was given a phone call and it said and I was told that we were going to have a deficit in our elementary school and then on the following Monday I got a phone call that um we actually were going to have a surplus so it looks like they've closed their books and they actually had a surplus over at the elementary school um so they're going they've requested that we put that money aside so once it's certified to free cash that we put it aside in the stabilization fund or they when they have a time when they need it in their Capital um so that but that was a that was a positive um that they actually ran a little bit of a surplus over there at the elementary school yeah when you look at the budget numbers you sent out it looked like they were going to have some money remaining there um in a couple of different categories and stuff significant dollars which is good it is yeah and they're going to have some Capital needs over there so that'll be good to be able to utilize that funding for their Capital needs and does that have to go before um town meeting to move that money like that Cody how does that work yeah so they you know they are um the elementary school is a department of the town just like you know the highway department or any you know the police department the elementary school is just like one of those departments so you know when they have a surplus per se we'll call it a surplus us it's just like any of our other departments that you know didn't spend their full budget which we rely on right we need our departments to not spend their full budgets because that ends up being our free cash and how we fund these items so um it I'm certainly um it's a positive that they had you know some excess um funds there but I we we we we kind of expect some excess funds because that's how we fund our Capital items and so that they are just like any other department uh Silver Lake you know they have their own uh end account uh which is basically their version of free cash where they would keep it and then they fund their own Capital items but the elementary school just same thing goes back to our free cash once it's certified um we you know through town meeting through your recommendation the board of selectman would be an appropriation process um so you know what what we'll end up recommending likely is to either if they have capital request for fiscal 26 would be to just use that money right and that amount for those if they don't have Capital requests that U meet that amount then maybe we put the the um whatever is remaining in the stabilization fund for that specific purpose or know something along those lines so we can earmark that within the stabilization fund for the school yeah we can yeah yeah okay but we don't have to and that's one thing I do I we it's a you know it would be a good kind of um good showing to them and you know good uh form of partnership but but it's again they're just another department of the town it's we'll get one free cash number at the end of the you know hopefully an October and that's the free cash of the town of Halifax town meeting appropriates as you know as they see fit so you know technically we could appropriate all of that to you know the fire department or whatever it may we're just um trying to be good partners with the elementary school yeah absolutely all right that good to hear okay anybody have anything else you want to discuss well give you eight more minutes we'll be two hours in here Jim well we had a lot on our plate for this one we did and it's good to clean things up got a lot of things in answered um I thought very very productive yep that was a good call good call all right so with that said we'll close out that uh that agenda item uh at this time um if there is nothing else I will let's how we have a motion to adjourn the meeting B moved thank second thank you Cheryl roll call vote EJ yes thank you Frank yes to adjourn please thank you sir Cheryl yes thank you and I a yes also so with that thank you everybody for putting the time in this evening and uh we unless something comes up we'll talk on the 15th of August have a good vacation vacation thanks take care thank you everybody good night [Music]